The study will investigate whether breath samples from patients after bowel surgery show early evidence of problems before symptoms develop. The study is to enable ongoing single site recruitment to increase numbers.

Previous research

A pilot randomised controlled trial funded by the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Scheme

This research was aimed to help with the planning of a main study, looking at the feasibility of the methods used including enrolment of patients, assessment of pain and maintenance of blinding of patients to mode of pain relief (hiding the allocation of each patient from participant, surgeon and research team).

A pilot randomised controlled trial funded by NIHR Research for Patient Benefit Scheme

The overall aim of the study was to test the feasibility of a definitive large randomised controlled trial by confirming its rationale and piloting all necessary components of that trial. The twin objectives were:

To assess the efficacy of an interval of 12 (rather than 6) weeks between CRT and surgery for the reduction of surgical technical complexity, and therefore surgical errors without any oncological compromise on the MRI.

To test processes and gather information for the planning of a large RCT investigating the impact of the timing of surgery (6 vs 12 weeks) on clinical outcomes following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer.

The primary aim of this pilot study was to inform a larger study by evaluating the logistics, feasibility and recruitment into a study investigating volatile biomarker analysis after colorectal surgery.